Family update #2 - Aiden

How can I best describe living with a 2 and a half year old? Difficult, eye-opening, infuriating, rewarding, draining, sometimes fun, mostly an uphill battle... Aiden is no doubt doing what all other kids do at this age - trying to discover himself and his independence while still desperately clinging to the safety of his parents. Hmmm - I think that sums it up. Unfortunately I think all the disruptions of buying a new house, packing up most of the contents of this house, the endless cleaning and the consequent lack of attention he is getting from us at the moment means he is feeling a bit out of sorts. Our fingers are crossed that when we move in to our new home and things settle down again then he too will be less of a challenge.
On a positive note, daycare is still going really well. Although there are still tears when I drop him off apparently he is settling quite quickly and seems to enjoy the whole day. He is always really chatty when I pick him up and his vocabulary seems to be increasing at a rapid rate.
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This is Aiden's idea of helping Dave move some heavy furniture

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I had e VERY pleasant surprise the other day when I checked the mail. There was a package from Hank & Vicki containing a very generous lump of aged gouda cheese. This cheese has become my favourite but I can't seem to find it anywhere in the shops - the only time I get to eat it is when we visit relies in Melbourne or when the in-laws bring it with them when they come to visit us. Of course Aiden thought it was pretty special just because it had been sent by Oma & Opa (he still talks about them ALL the time and one of his favourite toys is a toy caravan -"Opa's caravan").

So a big THANKYOU to Hank & Vicki for our little gift

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Dave's work had an open day so the public could come on site and have a look around. I was really keen to take Aiden so every day when he asks where Daddy is and I say, "at work" he now knows what I'm talking about. Unfortunalety he now thinks that Daddy spends all day playing with animals, riding in a bus, eating sausages and icecream and getting your face painted!

We were rather surprised when Aiden said he wanted his face painted rather than just the usual spider he gets drawn on his arm. After it was done the painter showed Aiden his face in a mirror. Aiden was so taken with his tiger face that he must have gone back to the mirror for a look about a million times (no exageration!).